Microsoft veteran Greg Nelson claims that the rumour about Microsoft leaving the ad business has spun out of control and couldn’t be less true. At least not anymore.

Nelson, general manager of display advertising for Microsoft’s online services division, addressed the issue in a blog post Monday. This comment may come as a surprise:

As someone who has worked at Microsoft for 15+ years, I can say this with unflinching confidence: our digital advertising business has never been more important to the company, more integral to our future, than it is today. Never.

There has been widespread speculation about the company’s role in advertising for the past two years.

Nelson admits, however, that advertising was not a big priority for Microsoft in the “not-too-distant-past.” For him, he said it changed when the company’s outgoing CEO Steve Ballmer outlined a new strategy focused on devices and services this past July. Nelson wrote:

Our job as the leaders of the advertising business at Microsoft is, therefore, to help drive consumer preference for the Windows ecosystem (including Windows 8.1, Windows Phone, and Surface) as well as for Skype, Xbox, Office, and our other devices and services, by creating an environment for app developers to build rich, engaging experiences that consumers will want. In this construct, “advertising” becomes much more than slapping an ad on a piece of digital real estate, it becomes the connective tissue that brings marketers, developers and consumers together.

At the end of 2013, things are looking better for Microsoft Advertising.

Microsoft, Apple, and Google are creating their own cookie alternatives to track Internet users for advertisers, and Apple’s Safari browser and Mozilla’s Firefox browser followed Internet Explorer’s once-controversial decision to block cookies.